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Council member stresses need for long-term planning and investment in immigrant services
5:31:10
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139 sec
Council Member Alexa Avilés emphasizes the need for long-term planning and increased investment in immigrant services to address the growing demand and complexity of cases.
- Avilés expresses concern over the lack of COLA increases for current legal service providers
- The discussion highlights the long-term nature of immigration cases, with some being scheduled as far as 2027
- Avilés stresses that immigration is not an emergency but a reality that the city needs to responsibly address
- The council member calls for a comprehensive plan to meet the ongoing needs of immigrants in New York City
Alexa Avilés
5:31:10
Yeah, it definitely begs the question.
5:31:12
I just feel like from an efficiency point of view, there's no greater frustration to provide a list of numbers to a person who then calls through it to only come back to you with more frustration.
5:31:23
That happens.
5:31:23
Say, I can't actually talk to anybody.
5:31:26
We know and, you know, obviously, this is a larger problem that our city really needs to invest in is how do we how do we how do we raise raise the bar here and be able to expand our capacity to meet what we know will be complex needs.
5:31:46
I mean, when I hear the city say we have done, I don't know what was it, 90,000 asylum applications?
Ernie Collette
5:31:55
100,000.
5:31:56
Over 100,000.
Alexa Avilés
5:31:57
You're giving me even more
Manuel Castro
5:31:58
of a
Alexa Avilés
5:31:59
heart attack.
5:31:59
Hundred thousand applications and then not acknowledge that it can even offer COLA increase to the current legal service providers.
5:32:09
It's like what is that?
5:32:12
It's incredibly tone deaf.
5:32:14
Like, yeah, anyway, I'm preaching to the coin.
Ernie Collette
5:32:17
Even 40% of that needed representative services.
Alexa Avilés
5:32:21
And over a long time, like, what's our plan as a city?
5:32:24
We know this is not going away.
5:32:25
People will need it.
Ernie Collette
5:32:27
With the affirmative backlog being at over ten years, with some cases that are being scheduled out to 2027 for regular master and not necessarily individual hearings.
5:32:38
Yes, individuals have an opportunity to get representation, but if they've exhausted all the lists that have been provided and organizations don't have enough attorneys to be able to meet the demand, individuals may go in years later on their own.
5:32:53
That can be very heartbreaking, especially if they have a strong claim for relief.
Alexa Avilés
5:32:57
Correct.
5:32:57
Thank you.
5:33:00
Our city needs to plan around how to do this in the long term and how to invest in it properly because it's not gonna go away.
5:33:06
Whether we are an unprecedented number now, we are an immigrant city that will welcome people from across the globe with climate change and people on the move.
5:33:16
It is a reality.
5:33:17
It is not an emergency.
5:33:18
It is a reality that we, as a city, need to responsibly lean into.
5:33:23
So I thank you all, and and I hope we can get there.